Last night I taught the first of 5 classes in the Evolutionary Enlightenment Course, here at the EnlightenNext headquarters in Foxhollow - it really was a leap into the unknown, even with the excellent training, support and advice from the course designer, Jeff Carreira (check out his blog!) . In the end the feeling is of throwing yourself in and giving it all you've got, knowing there is so much to give and a lot to learn at the same time. The fact that Jeff and I also share many years as students of these teachings of Andrew Cohen makes it even better - it brings out the true purpose of a collaborative relationship based in no limitation and the evolution of consciousness itself. From my own experience of the class it is obvious that I am going to be developing right along with everyone else and the very act of attempting to convey this teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment puts our collective attention on exactly that place, in each one of us, that wants to know itSelf ever more deeply and expand it’s Self knowledge ever more infinitely.

We have a really great group of people – 21 so far – a nice cross section of the Berkshires and beyond, with a couple more people coming next week. I’d love to hear any questions or comments you have so we can all set the stage for an even bigger leap into the unknown in Class 2!

In love and inspiration, Katherine

Class 2 of the Evolutionary Enlightenment course, Context is Everything, took us all out further on that edge of understanding, knowing and not knowing, flying and falling, than we expected. Afterwards, I discovered a couple of people from the class walking around wondering what had hit them and they weren't so sure of who they were anymore... It was a powerful message  to Wake Up! and realize our place in the Universe, to deeply consider our role in the evolution of the Universe itself, something Andrew Cohen calls "the Universe project". Just stretching our minds and bodies and souls to embrace, as fully as possible, the biggest context, from the biggest possible perspective, puts us there, teetering on that edge, scarily overwhelmed and compelled by that very impulse to evolve. The continually amazing thing to me is that you can get to a really deep, full understanding of these big questions - who am I really? what am I supposed to be doing here?, simply through taking your own experience so seriously and going so deeply into it, that you start to unravel them from what seems like the inside out, until you realize there is no inner and outer, what's inside is outside and visa versa! We are the Universe itself....

I just had a thrilling teaching session with EE Course designer, Jeff Carreira, reviewing the first two classes we have done, and then delving deeply into the the next step they are leading to - our real live experience of and engagement in the practice of meditation - as an entry point to Evolutionary Enlightenment and the authentic self. I find this whole process of learning to teach incredilbly Enlightening ; ) . It brings all one's LIFE experinece right into the present, into the fullest context possible. All of it becomes fodder for  learning when it is seen from the perspective of change and development in real time real life for the highest purpose. I have this funny experience of it not being MY life anymore but just a particular stream of human development, that when seen from afar, is just one stream amongst a galaxy of streams, all moving forward with One purpose. It is so mind bogglingly impersonal! It frees one up from any idea that any experience could be inherently limiting, which is what we end up discovering in the practice of meditation itself. What a fantastic journey to be on together.....

We really stepped into the deep end together in class 3 - exploring meditation, and it's role and significance, in the evolution of consciousness in the 21st century...The most challenging part  is stepping back far enough to see what our actual relationship, free or unfree, is to all of our experience - we are, after all, highly conditioned beings, usually completely identified with thought and feeling. The idea that we are not responsible for our thoughts goes against the grain of our new age upbringing and when it was brought up in the beginning of the class, it was the first time many had considered it....deeply contemplating this turns everything upside down and we found ourselves wondering who we are and what are we doing here from a complettely different place!

We spoke at length together about the meditation instruction, "letting everything be as it is", and what it really means in the practice of meditation. It's much more radical than you might think at first glance - even the experinces of "observing" or being "detached" that people reffered to, don't touch it, it's such an absolute postion of no relationship whatsoever to whatever arises in consciousness. When we finally meditated together, listening to Andrew Cohen's guided meditation, there was a united attention and intention to explore this position and a deep stillness enveloped the room.

It's exciting to see the consciousness of the class as a whole, as well as individually, developing - the intersubjective aspect of our exploration into Evolutionary Enlightenment is becoming more and more pronounced and when we all meditated together this became even more experiential....we are able to go so much farther and deeper together....

Here's what one student had to say:
"I am just writing to say that last night's class was freeing and filled with the collective consciousness....I feel that there was a significant collectiveness that was present during our meditation- it was incredible and I think this class has superbness to it and a deep commitment to all be free and better this world- it feels ecstatic.  I think we are all superheros of enlightenment."